A Complete Blockfront: C. P. Skelton in Sixth Avenue

Another fine example of a complete Park Slope blockfront designed as a unified whole stands on the west side of 6th Avenue between 1st & 2nd Streets:

278-296 6th Avenue - unprotected

We searched the online Brooklyn Eagle in vain for any citation of these buildings. We tried countless permutations of search keys including "Sixth avenue", "First street", "Second street" etc., but no hits. Thus it was highly gratifying finally to find a reference in the American Architect and Building News of 1887:

"Building Intelligence; Houses; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 21, no. 600 (Jun. 25, 1887): p. xiii.

– "Sixth Ave., s w cor. First St., three-st’y and basement brown-stone dwell., tin roof; cost, $5,000; owner, architect and builder, C. P. Skelton."

– "Sixth Ave., n w cor. Second St., three-st’y and basement brown-stone dwell., tin roof; cost, $5,000; owner, architect and builder, C. P. Skelton."

– "Sixth Ave., w s 20' s First St., 8 two-and-a-half-st’y and basement brown-stone dwells., tin roofs; cost, each, $5,000; owner, architect and builder, C. P. Skelton.

This is one of those cases, apparently not uncommon in 19th c. Brooklyn, in which a single individual, one C. P. Skelton in this case, alone assumed the role of owner, architect, and builder. Skelton seems to have carried off his responsibility quite nicely here. The end houses bracket the row with full-height, two-sided projecting window bays and a full three stories over basement, in contrast to the two-and-a-half story, flat facades of much of the rest of the row. The central pair of houses again rises to a full three stories. Altogether this row seems to us perhaps a slight echo of the wonderful townhouse blocks of Knightsbridge or Belgravia.

The entire Neo-grec block is in nearly original condition, excepting one of the central pair which has regrettably lost its stoop and cornice.

278-296 6th Avenue - unprotected

The 1897 Lain's Brooklyn Directory lists 296 6th Avenue, the choice corner lot with full southern exposure, as the residence of Christopher P. Skelton, "builder".

SKELTON Chris'r P. bldr. 296 6th av

296-294 6th Avenue - unprotected

Beyond the fact that he designed and built this fine row in 1887 and occupied the end house himself, we have found nothing else about Christopher P. Skelton.

A Complete Blockfront: John J. Deery, Architect

Park Slope boasts many complete blockfronts, designed as a whole for a single client by one architect. Such is the case for the block fronting 7th Avenue between 1st and 2nd Streets, across from P.S. 321:

173-187 7th Avenue - unprotected

According to the American Architect and Building News, with corroborating evidence from the Brooklyn Eagle, the row was built in 1891 for Joseph E. Rogers of Manhattan, and was designed by architect John J. Deery:

173-187 Seventh Avenue (SE corner 1st Street to NE corner 2nd Street)

"Building Intelligence; Stores; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 31, no. 792 (Feb. 28, 1891): p. xviii.

– "Seventh Ave., s e cor. First St., five-st’y brick store and dwell., tin and tile roof; cost, $18,000; owner, J. E. Rogers, 1650 Madison Ave., New York City; architect, John J. Deery, 280 Broadway, New York City."

– "Seventh Ave., n e cor. Second St., five-st’y brick store and dwell., tin and tile roof; cost, $18,000; owner, J. E. Rogers, 1650 Madison Ave., New York City; architect, John J. Deery, 280 Broadway, New York City."

– "Seventh Ave., e s, 25' s First St., 6 four-st’y brick stores and dwells., tin and tile roofs; cost, $12,000 each; owner, Joseph E. Rogers, 1650 Madison Ave., New York City; architect, John J. Deery, 280 Broadway, New York City."

At the southeast corner of Seventh avenue and First street and the northeast corner of Seventh avenue and Second street, two five story brick stores and dwellings, 25x90, nine families in each. Joseph E. Rogers, owner: cost $30,000. -Brooklyn Eagle, January 31, 1891, p. 2 ("New Buildings"). Together with:
On Seventh avenue, near First street, six four story brick store dwellings, 25x70, eight families in each. Joseph E. Rogers, owner: cost $72,000. -Brooklyn Eagle, January 31, 1891, p. 2 ("New Buildings").

The original row comprised eight buildings, in three designs, in an ABBCCBBA pattern. The corner ("A") buildings are five stories each, while the others are four stories; the center two ("C") buildings have double bay windows.

173 7th Avenue (style 'A') - unprotected

173 7th Avenue - detail - pressed tin decoration

177 7th Avenue - style 'B' - detail

181 7th Avenue - style 'C' - unprotected

Architect John Jerome Deery's practice seems to have been based in Philadelphia and to have involved the design of many Roman Catholic church buildings. His biography is posted on the Philadelphia Buildings website, where the Park Slope blockfront is listed amongst his known works.

The block is missing an original building at 185 7th Avenue. The New York Times of March 10, 1928 reports the sale of 185 Seventh Avenue, a six-family flat, in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn, so the original building was apparently still standing at that time.

173-187 7th Avenue - unprotected

However, the building is missing in an aerial photograph of Park Slope from the 1950s; the view is to the west and the row is in the lower right-hand corner of the photograph. Sometime between 1928 and the 1950s, this otherwise intact block developed a "missing tooth".

7th Avenue - 3rd St. to 1st St. - view to west - 1950s

The view above also shows the buildings that were later replaced by P.S. 321.

Documentary History published

The first edition of our Documentary History of the Park Slope Historic District Expansion Study Area is now published on the web.

This document compiles all of the historic documentation that our intrepid band of volunteer researchers has been able to uncover so far about the historic unprotected buildings in Park Slope. We have been posting this same material in the photo comments of our comprehensive photo survey of Park Slope. But this new document consolidates all this information into a single place. We will continue to maintain both the photo captions and this document as new research comes into our hands.

In many cases, we have multiple citations for the same group of buildings, and it is interesting to note how the different citations complement each other. Consider the following citations for the same row of houses on Prospect Place. The first is from the American Architect and Building News, while the second is from the Brooklyn Eagle:

54-64 Prospect Place - unprotected

54-64 Prospect Place

"Building Intelligence; Houses; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 21, no. 599 (Jun. 18, 1887): p. xiii.

– "Prospect Pl., s s, 103' w Sixth Ave., 6 three-st’y and basement brown-stone dwells., tin roofs; cost, $8,000; owner, Theresa B. Collins, 359 Sixth St.; architect, C. P. H. Gilbert."

On Prospect Place, near Sixth avenue, Mr. F. B. Collins will build six three story and basement brick residences, 16.8x45, for one family in each, to cost $48,000. -Brooklyn Eagle, June 11, 1887, p. 2 ("Up Again").

The AABN listing is very specific with regard to location; includes the address of the developer; and also includes the architect's name. The Eagle citation seems to have mistaken the first initial and gender of the developer. However the Eagle's citation includes the buildings' dimensions.

We have tried to minimize "interpretation" of these findings and to let the documentary record speak for itself. Assigning the citations to present-day addresses is, of course, itself an interpretation.

C. P. H. Gilbert, the distinguished architect of this beautiful row of Queen Anne houses, also designed many of the buildings in Montgomery Place and Carroll Street within the current Historic District.

Postscript: Louis Bonert

Our intrepid band of historic researchers has uncovered a wealth of new material regarding our favorite Park Slope builder, the prolific Louis Bonert, about whom we have written a great deal on this blog. We won't review the entire Bonert thread, but we want to clarify a couple of earlier tentative attributions.

Most of our latest material has been culled from the American Architect and Building News (AABN), a great resource for researchers of historic buildings. Some of the AABN is online, but we are lucky to have a researcher who has access to nearly the complete run in hardcopy, from which we have derived a wealth of new material for our ever-expanding "Documentary History of Park Slope" (which we hope to publish shortly on the web). Our Research Committee is winding up a chronological scan of the entire AABN run, extracting all of the "hits" for Park Slope. As the hits are obtained, we are logging them in the comments section of our comprehensive photo survey of Park Slope, and also compiling them in a master file we are calling the "Documentary History" of Park Slope, which we will be publishing in a few days.

At any rate, in our earlier Bonert series, we went out on a limb a few times and engaged in "interpretation" or "speculation", in contrast to simply publishing the documentary evidence.

One of these cases is the west side of Sixth Avenue between 4th and 5th Streets (the block from Puppetworks to the Park Slope Ale House):

6th Avenue and 5th Street, northwest corner - unprotected

6th Avenue and 4th Street, southwest corner - unprotected

Despite a complete lack of any evidence, we speculated earlier that this row was by Bonert, based on its similarities to buildings across the street for which we have a documented connection. And we are gratified that the AABN has now confirmed the connection. According to the AABN, Louis Bonert constructed this row in 1891 to the plans of prolific Brooklyn architect W. M. Coots:

"Building Intelligence; Apartment-Houses; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 34, no. 823 (Oct. 3, 1891): p. xvi.

– "Sixth Ave., n w cor. Fifth St., 5 four-st’y brick apartment-houses, tin roofs; cost, $35,000; owner and builder, L. Bonnert [sic - Bonert], 528 Tenth St.; architect, W. M. Coots, 26 Court St."

"Building Intelligence; Stores; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 34, no. 826 (Oct. 24, 1891): p. xviii.

– "Sixth Ave., s w cor. Fourth St., 5 four-st’y stores and apartment-houses, tin roofs; cost, $35,000; owner and builder, L. Bonnert, 528 Tenth St.; architect, W. M. Coots, 26 Court St."

We speculated elsewhere that the northeast corner of 6th Avenue and First street might also have been from Bonert, based on similarities to some of his other work:

6th Avenue and 1st Street, northeast corner - unprotected

However, the AABN confirms that these buildings were built in 1895 by M. S. Buckley to designs by architect Robert Dixon:

"Building Intelligence; Houses; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 49, no. 1019 (Jul. 6, 1895): p. 7.
– "Sixth Ave., e s, 22' 8" n 1^st St., 4 four-st’y brick dwells., 19' 4" x 62'; tin roofs; $19,000; own. and bld., M. S. Buckley, 287 Tenth St.; arch., Robt. Dixon, 219 Montague St."

– "Sixth Ave., , n e cor. 1^st St., four-st’y brick dwell., 22' 8" x 90'; tin roof; $8,000; own. and bld., M. S. Buckley, 287 Tenth St.; arch., Robt. Dixon, 219 Montague St."

In truth we harbored doubts about our earlier tentative attribution to Bonert. The buildings lack the distinctive "Green Man" panels beneath the windows, and also feature only single columns flanking the doorways, rather than Bonert's distinctive column clusters. Now the AABN confirms that they are in fact not by Bonert at all, although they do seem somewhat derivative of his buildings.

Watch for the upcoming publication of our "Documentary History" of Park Slope.